


Mall Crawl

by amoleofmonsters



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-09
Updated: 2016-08-09
Packaged: 2018-08-07 15:08:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7719544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amoleofmonsters/pseuds/amoleofmonsters
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shiro just wants to buy a winter coat. He didn't expect to run into his RA, Allura, of all people.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mall Crawl

**Author's Note:**

> Brief mention of unrequited klance. For reference, Allura is a junior, Shiro is a sophomore, and the rest of the paladins are freshmen. 
> 
> Requested by dryandsensitive on tumblr: "how about a modern day college AU where allura is shiro's RA and they run into each other at the mall and have a mall date that leaves them lowkey questioning their feelins .. hopefully not too specific"

Sometimes Shiro can’t help but question his college choices. In his small college town, the closest place where someone can buy clothes is a large strip mall almost half an hour away from main campus. It’s not that Shiro has a problem with malls; on the contrary, this one has a decent selection. But there’s just something about driving twenty minutes on a late Saturday morning to buy a winter coat when all he wants to do is sleep until two in the afternoon that makes him wish that he lived in a city where everything is just a five minute walk away. 

Shiro pulls himself out of his car, blinking up at the mid-fall sun. The coffee in his hand, the finest his school’s dining hall can offer, is far too watered down for his tastes but he inhales it because it’s just one of those days where he woke up feeling like a garbage can. 

When he enters the mall, he finds it to be sparsely populated. He chucks his coffee cup into the nearest trash bin and briskly walks into the store. The near-empty mall is eerie and he wants to get out of there as fast as possible. He starts rifling through the coats, full of determination. 

“Shiro? Is that you?” 

Shiro turns around, startled. He sees a woman across the store waving at him. He narrows his eyes, trying to figure out who it is. The women runs over to him, a giant smile on her face, and Shiro recognizes her. It’s Allura, his way too stressed out and motivated RA. She’s the last person he would have expected to run into. 

“Hey, Allura,” says Shiro. 

“Fancy meeting you here. What are you here for?” 

“Oh, just getting a winter coat. You?” 

“Same here. Except this is my third trip, and I don’t like anything. I wish I wasn’t think picky with coats, but they’re all either not good at all or way out of my budget,” said Allura with a sigh. “I know I’ll eventually have to suck it up and buy something, but until then I guess I’ll just keep coming back here.” 

“Need any help?” Shiro knows full well that his own coat purchase is likely only going to take ten minutes at most. 

Allura brightens up. “Oh, that would be great!” Her eyes are practically shining with happiness. She leads him over to the women’s coat section and spends a good part of the next hour trying on coats. Allura hadn’t been lying; she likes almost nothing she tries on, even if Shiro thinks it’s a perfectly reasonable coat. But he doesn’t ultimately mind. Allura is a very pleasant person to be around, her particular taste in coats not withstanding, and the hour goes by quickly. 

Eventually, Allura throws down the last coat with disgruntled pout and says, “Well, I guess today was another a bust. Thanks for helping me. You got any time? Because I wanna buy you coffee as a thank you.” 

“Yeah, I have time, but really, it wasn’t a big deal. You really don’t have to do that.” 

Allura grabs him by the arm and beams. “No, no, I want to. Come on!” Based on Allura’s tone, Shiro knows there’s no use protesting. He lets Allura drag him across the mall to the nearest Starbucks. It’s not exactly to his taste since Shiro tends to drink his coffee with only the smallest amount of milk, but he’s not about to complain. It’s mostly because he’s not the one paying and any other coffee shop could be miles away. He has to get back to campus eventually and study, even though that’s the last thing he wants to do. 

They order their coffee and slip into two armchairs in the corner of the shop. Shiro watches as Allura blows on her coffee to cool it down. “So I haven’t seen you around the hall lately. Midterms killing you?” asks Shiro, realizes it’s the first time he’s seen her in almost two weeks.

Allura rolls her eyes. “I wish. I used to study in my room. Now, I can’t do that because of Lance next door. I don’t understand how he has loud monkey sex every. Single. Night. So I started having to camp out in the library if I want to have any peace and quiet.” 

Shiro chuckles. “Hey, at least you know he’s safe because the free condom bin at the end of the hall keeps getting emptied.” 

Allura sighs. “I’d feel better about it if it wasn’t a totally obvious attempt to convince himself he’s straight. We’ve all noticed how he looks at Keith.” 

Shiro shrugs. “Not much you can do about that. Believe me, I’ve tried.” 

Allura sighs again. “I really just wanted an all upperclassmen floor. Was that really too hard to ask? Freshmen are a disaster.” 

“Could be worse. Could be all freshmen.” 

Allura narrows her eyes at Shiro. “Don’t even imply that. It’s bad enough having to hear the four on our floor wretch their guts out at least once a weekend because they can’t hold their drink. The other day I watched Hunk hold Keith’s hair back in the hallway as they each took turns vomiting into a trashcan. I don’t think it occurred to them that they were only a few feet away from their rooms.” 

“Eh, they’ll figure it out soon enough. We all did.” 

“Doesn’t seem to be happening soon enough.” 

Shiro drains the last of his coffee and it seems like their afternoon is coming to a close. With a resilient sigh, the two of them stand up and throw out their cups. They start walking towards the entrance of the mall, Shiro feeling his feet start to drag. He realizes that he enjoyed spending time with Allura and he doesn’t want their afternoon to come to an end. He’d never really noticed his RA before, but having some one on one time with her made him realize that she was actually pretty cool. He knew he wanted to see her again. “Hey, do you wanna get dinner sometime?” asks Shiro before he can chicken out. 

Allura turns to look at him with a startled expression, but it’s not at all unpleasant. “That would be great! When did you have in mind?” 

“Any chance you’re free tomorrow night?” 

“Well, I was going to sit in the library and try to get ahead on some of my work so I can miss Lance and his tinder girl, but dinner would probably serve the exact same purpose.” 

Shiro gave her a giant grin. “Eight o’clock work for you?” Allura nods in affirmation. “It’s a date!” He leans down and plants a quick kiss on her cheek. Then, before she can see his bright red face, he turns away and sprints to his car. “See you tomorrow!” 

He can hear Allura softly giggling behind him. “See you tomorrow!”


End file.
